[swift-evolution] [Review] SE-0159: Fix Private Access Levels

[Brent Royal-Gordon]

> On Mar 20, 2017, at 4:54 PM, Douglas Gregor via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
> 
> Proposal link:
> 
>> https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/blob/master/proposals/0159-fix-private-access-levels.md
> 
> 	• What is your evaluation of the proposal?

I'm torn. During the SE-0025 review, I argued against scoped private. I still think it was a mistake to add it. But we did, it's out there, and I don't want to introduce churn unnecessarily.

Long ago, judges realized the problems caused by re-litigating old disputes and created a doctrine called "stare decisis": standing by things decided. That doesn't mean they won't correct obvious mistakes, but it does mean that they default to upholding the precedent they've already set. I think that would be a wise course here.

I personally would prefer to have Swift behave as SE-0159 proposes. But if the core team thinks this is going to come out 50/50—that is, this change will help about as many people as it hurts—I think they should reject this proposal and keep the status quo. I really don't want to write another review next year for SE-0289 "Reintroduce Scoped Private".

-- 
Brent Royal-Gordon
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